posted at 3:25 pm on August 30, 2011 by Tina Korbe

Rick Perry roared into the presidential race to great acclaim, but he hasn’t exactly been without detractors. His entrance has inspired a rhetorical war about what it means to “vet” candidates and about whether conservatives should vet their own or leave it to the MSM to do that dirty work, as they undoubtedly will.

Multimedia powerhouse Glenn Beck weighed in on that debate this week, saying sources he trusts implicitly have convinced him Rick Perry had a come-to-Jesus moment at some point in his governorship and the problematic Perry of past years has given way to Rick “the Real Deal” Perry, a conservative’s conservative. The Right Scoop reports:

Glenn Beck and his beloved sidekick Pat Gray, who used to live in Texas, recently had a conversation with some people very close to Rick Perry with regard to their concerns about him as a candidate. These are people who Beck, without divulging their identities, says that he trusts and that if he could tell you who they were it would only add credibility to their words. What they told him was that in the last four years Rick Perry has had a God-moment:

Beck: Here’s what I was told and I believe these people because they’re not just bandwagon fans by any stretch of the imagination. … And they said to me ‘Here’s the thing. This guy had a God-moment, if you will, an awakening of something inside of him.’ … I mean he’s always been a spiritual guy but he has had something that has changed in him fundamentally where he’s like ‘OK, wait a minute. Hang on just a second. Do I believe this or not? Do I apply this or not?’ And that’s what’s happened to him in the last four years that has put his feet in cement.

Beck said his words weren’t an endorsement of Perry, but were meant as push-back to concerns about Perry as a candidate.

Breaking on Hot Air

Blowback

Note from Hot Air management: This section is for comments from Hot Air's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that Hot Air management agrees with or otherwise endorses any particular comment just because we let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with our terms of use may lose their posting privilege.

While I’m sure Beck means Perry is a Christian and somehow that testimony alone inspires confidence in his politics (how?? why???), this type of nebulous religispeak troubles me. What God? Or does that even matter?

OH I can hear the Christianist’s heads exploding! But Beck doesnt pray to our Jesus! But he believes Perry’s God’s guy! But Beck doesnt believe in our God! POW! brains all over the room. Feel free to comment meatheadinca and portlandon and hondav65

A die hard McCain supporter not knowing what’s real…there’s a surprise. Well, don’t worry about Beck, Terrye..you have more important concerns. You’ve got to get ready for that big Huntsman push for the nothing line.

OH I can hear the Christianist’s heads exploding! But Beck doesnt pray to our Jesus! But he believes Perry’s God’s guy! But Beck doesnt believe in our God! POW! brains all over the room. Feel free to comment meatheadinca and portlandon and hondav65

drballard on August 30, 2011 at 3:36 PM

Heads don’t have to explode. We can disagree agreeably without getting cranky.

In light of what GB has been saying and doing for the past few years, I’d consider that a viable endorsement for me. That GB is a Mormon means NASA, considering that Harry Reid, Mittness, Stardust and Hatch are Mormons or that Kennedy or Pelosi song with chief justice Roberts or even Ed are Catholics have no bearing on whether I think they are the real deal. Doesn’t matter the religion, what matters is whether they are constitutional conservatives or socialist progressives. I’ll be sure to watch for RP’s come to Jesus moment regarding our country.

I’m having trouble understanding this post? Is it about conservatism or religion? My reading, notwithstanding the “God-moment” language, is that Perry had some change of heart where he internalized conservatism. Others seem to be reading it differently.

I thought that after taking a lot of money from the gullible he cashed in and went away. Appearantly not. Fox did well to get rid of him as he would really be too big a load of foolishness to carry in toe coming election cycle.

I’m having trouble understanding this post? Is it about conservatism or religion? My reading, notwithstanding the “God-moment” language, is that Perry had some change of heart where he internalized conservatism. Others seem to be reading it differently.

I’m willing to gamble with Rick Perry as President – Mitt Romney not so much.

I would sooner trust Huntsman or Obama than Romney – at least they are upfront about the harm they wish to cause me. Romney and his RINO backers, on the other hand, would give me as much pain but would insist I shut up and swallow what THEY know is best for me and will end up sullying the name of conservatives by identifying themselves as such.

GB can be annoying sometimes, but I have come to believe that he is sincere. I’m glad to hear he’s supporting Perry, for whatever reason.

And I don’t have an issue with Mormons, either. I think they are a bit confused, but man do they love Jesus and show the love of Christ to everyone they know. I think they will be forgiven for being a bit off on the details.

That GB is a Mormon means NASA, considering that Harry Reid, Mittness, Stardust and Hatch are Mormons or that Kennedy or Pelosi song with chief justice Roberts or even Ed are Catholics have no bearing on whether I think they are the real deal.

AH_C on August 30, 2011 at 3:41 PM

I’m guessing you meant “NADA” in that sentence, AH_C, but I rather like it the way it is.

By the process of free association, it evokes for me a new NASA mission: making Mormons feel good about their contributions to science.

OH I can hear the Christianist’s heads exploding! But Beck doesnt pray to our Jesus! But he believes Perry’s God’s guy! But Beck doesnt believe in our God! POW! brains all over the room. Feel free to comment meatheadinca and portlandon and hondav65

I thought that after taking a lot of money from the gullible he cashed in and went away. Appearantly not. Fox did well to get rid of him as he would really be too big a load of foolishness to carry in toe coming election cycle.

Annar on August 30, 2011 at 3:47 PM

Obviously you speak lefty talking points here…you have no idea really what Beck’s shows were about…hummmm…as if making money is evil…ho…only if it’s Beck, Palin….

See, he can say all he wants pithy soundbites, but I’m not seeing it. Ask any Texas business owner how conservative their new “franchise” tax is, or how their property tax has been inder Perry, or if there’s been any border enforcement at all, or about the HPV fiasco. See, he looks conservative, and he sounds conservative, but the record isn’t. See what Michelle Malkin says

My big problem with Perry is his stance on illegals. Unless you live in the neighborhoods where illegals are, you won’t understand the complete and utter damage they do to your community.

moonsbreath on August 30, 2011 at 4:08 PM

Amen brother (or sister)!

I spent a week in Maine this summer and thought, “these people would be shocked if they had to put up with what I put up with”. It was like a completely different America up there. What it used to be like before the invasion.

Just read the article, and …wow. That’s a lot of words derived by a bunch of poor, finite beings trying to describe the process of an infinite being becoming flesh. Fortunately, I don’t think that question will be on the Final Exam.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has been among the most vocal critics of President Obama’s health care reform initiative, and of Mitt Romney’s preceding health care program in Massachusetts. But in 1993, while serving as Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Perry praised the efforts of then-first lady Hillary Clinton to reform health care, a precursor to Obama’s health care reform efforts.

In a letter to Clinton, who is now U.S. Secretary of State, Perry wrote: “I think your efforts in trying to reform the nation’s health care system are most commendable.

Last I witnessed, Beck had a pretty large fan base.
Not in the way of ‘he’s a hunk in hollywood’ fan, but a base that reflects thoughtful people with a spiritual basis in their thinking (regardless of said religion-from jew to gentile).

I’m very happy to see that Hot Air has a very, very Tiny fraction of the people that “follow” Beck. There are many that are not mormons, but that are wise enough to know that this isn’t about being a mormon.
I am so freakin’ sick of the hypocrisy of people…and the hate. Who gives a flip if he’s a mormon? He’s a decent human being. That counts for much more with many more people. Thank Goodness it does, too!!!

Multimedia powerhouse Glenn Beck weighed in on that debate this week, saying sources he trusts implicitly have convinced him Rick Perry had a come-to-Jesus moment at some point in his governorship and the problematic Perry of past years has given way to Rick “the Real Deal” Perry, a conservative’s conservative. The Right Scoop reports:

OH . MY . GOD!

And here I thought the P in POTUS stood for President instead of Preacher.

Does this mean that up until 4 years ago Perry was just a ‘pretend’ Christian but now he’s a ‘real’ Christian and is that what is required to be a ‘real deal conservative’s conservative?

Yeah, I gotta tell you, Perry may talk like a conservative, but as an employer of 32 texans, my tax burden has gone up CONSIDERABLY under Gov Perry. So how’s he conservative again?

drballard on August 30, 2011 at 4:17 PM

Was this solely because of the design and build of Rick Perry or were other factors involved???
Please elaborate because around here….the governor surely doesn’t own that much power over businesses…..
I want details.

It is all about when did Perry or Mitt or even Obama change to be what they where to be what they appearer to be now. How did Perry go from a governor who had been a progressive leftish ex-democrat to become small government conservative right. How and why did Mitt go from pro-chose to pro-life. And how, when and why did Obama go from being force fed Marxism in rev wright church, from his mother and well every person he has worked with and for to a full fledge free market capitalists.

It is just like his struggle with alcoholism he knows how he went from a dirt bag drunk to a great man he is now. It was his God moment and to him, faith lead him to the straight path. What was it for Perry and is it an illusion like Obama.

OK. First of all, I can to Texas because of the lack of personal income tax. Most revenue is generated from property tax. About 3 years ago, my acountant says, “Oh, you owe $15k in franchise tax”. What the hell is frnchise tax I ask him. “it’s a new tax Gov Perry passed to keep the property tax rates down.” Ask any Texan if their property tax rate has gone down. The rate hasn’t changed, but every year the assesor values the property. Think property is more valuable now than 2009? The assesors sure do- mine has gone up 15% every single year since then. So Perry can brag on keeping taxes low all he wants, but as far ad I’ve seen, it’s all smoke and mirrors.

I think one of HOTAir’s own “Perry-hater” posters was just on the Sean Hannity show. Amazing! We have the worst, most do-nothing president in our history, and these people want a PERFECT candidate without blemish. I guess that since they were all convinced by Obambi that he was the messiah, and now that they see he’s not, they are still looking. The stupidity of it is, that even Elmo could do a better job than Obama, so any one of the GOP candidates would be a major improvement over him.

Texas Governor Rick Perry has been among the most vocal critics of President Obama’s health care reform initiative, and of Mitt Romney’s preceding health care program in Massachusetts. But in 1993, while serving as Texas Agriculture Commissioner, Perry praised the efforts of then-first lady Hillary Clinton to reform health care, a precursor to Obama’s health care reform efforts.

In a letter to Clinton, who is now U.S. Secretary of State, Perry wrote: “I think your efforts in trying to reform the nation’s health care system are most commendable.

That’s a nothing story. It appears that Perry wrote it when Hillary was beginning her health care initiative, and Perry was trying to steer it towards something that would benefit Texas. That sounds like a smart thing for any state governor to have done back then.

Come up with something that demonstrates that Perry approved of Hillarycare in its final form, and you might have something that’s ‘gonna leave a mark’.

Yeah, amazingly my assesment keeps increasing too and my friends all tell me the same, all while the value does not increase. This year I bought out the co-owner of my house and the bank required an appraisal for the loan. After which I marched down to the appraisal district. They didn’t bring it down to the level of the bank’s appraisal but they lowered it significantly, certainly enough to make it worth the effort and the cost of the appraisal.

But I thought that was the [county] appraisal district’s doing, not Perry’s.

The same RINOs/party Establishment guys who criticized Perry for his Bernanke comment and have called on conservatives to lay off “mindless” criticism of Obama have no such hesitation when it comes to criticizing a conservative.

One thing will certainly be made clear to all conservatives this election cycle, something some of us already know: the GOP and Dem Establishments are one and the same, they all want the same thing – the expansion of Big Govt. into every sector of our lives. Their methods might differ but their ultimate goal remains the same.

Hence to the GOP Establishment, the presidential nominee must be a RINO otherwise they are willing to throw it to Obama.

Beck didn’t endorse Perry….he simply was saying Perry isn’t the same guy as he was 4 years ago…that he really is trying to be the real deal in regards to being conservative.

And to the other posters….I think its hilarious for those who don’t care a wit about Glenn’s opinion, yet took the time to post that thought….guess what most people don’t care a wit about your opinion either

And to those who took the opportunity to bash religion…really? Beck wasn’t claiming Perry became a Mormon….my goodness some people are thick. The country is on fire and you have to stir up more fires so that you can feel better about your religion….wow